Deviled Eggs With Caviar

I have never made deviled eggs before and always avoided them at parties. Although I love eggs, these have never appealed to me because they look dry and blah. I have prepared the very versatile eggs in many different ways: fried, scrambled, omelettes, egg whites added to Chinese soups, soft and hard boiled to ramen soup, chopped for salad and sandwiches with olive spread, foo yung, and with red sauce, I could go on and on.:p. I was looking for a simple deviled eggs recipe and found one that is lemon flavored and topped with caviar. It's fortunate I have a jar of really cheap Icelandic black capelin caviar in the pantry that I was planning to use for onigiri and sushi.

Deviled Eggs With Lemon
8 eggs
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons lemon juice
¼ teaspoon sea salt or to taste
lemon zest for garnish
black caviar

• Use eggs that are at least 1 week old. The day before making deviled eggs, tape the box of eggs and lay it on its side to center the yolks. The next day, put eggs in a medium saucepan, add water to cover, let come to a boil. Immediately remove from heat, cover and set timer to 12 minutes. Drain and fill pan with cold water, changing 3 times. Leave the water and eggs in the pan, peel eggs under running water to avoid breakage and for ease of peeling. With a sharp knife, cut each egg in half lengthwise. Remove the yolks onto a bowl. Cover whites with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Mash egg yolks with a fork, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate both for 30 minutes. Mix egg yolks with the rest of the ingredients, except lemon zest and caviar, until very smooth. Using a medium star tip, pipe yolk mixture into the egg white holes, extending a little bit over the hole. If serving immediately, spoon a little of the caviar on top using plastic utensil. Sprinkle with lemon zest. These can be covered and refrigerated a day before, adding caviar just before serving.

Fried Catfish Fillet With Tomato Sauce

My daughter asked me to cook meatless or fish dinners on Fridays because she is giving up a few things during Lent, and meat on Fridays is one of them. I am more than happy to feed everyone in my house fish and this is my chance to cook fish more often.

Fried Catfish Fillet
1½ pounds catfish fillet
1 tablespoon lemon or calamansi juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sea salt
cornstarch
olive oil for frying

Tomato Sauce
1 T olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 large tomatoes. diced
1 tsp lemon or calamansi juice
1 tsp soy sauce
½ tsp salt
ground black pepper
fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped

• Marinate fish in lemon juice, soy sauce and salt for no more than 10 minutes. In a large skillet heat oil on medium high. Roll fillets in cornstarch, fry until golden brown and crispy. Transfer to a serving dish.
• While fish is marinating, prepare the sofrito: Saute garlic and onion until cooked, about 3 minutes. Add lemon juice, soy sauce and salt, stir fry for 1 minute. Turn off the heat, add tomatoes, cilantro and ground pepper. Mix well and set aside. Spoon on top of fried fish fillets. Serve with steamed baby squash.

sweet and tender steamed and lightly salted assorted baby squash

Callos With Green Chickpeas

Callos is one Spanish dish that I regularly make, it is so easy to prepare and so flavorful. I don't use tripe in my callos because it takes forever to cook and nobody in my house likes the smell of cooking tripe. I use a lot of chorizos instead. For a little variation I used green garbanzos (chickpeas). The colors of red peppers, tomatoes and the chorizos look so well with the green chickpeas.

Callos
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups ham, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 Spanish chorizos, sliced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 16-oz can diced tomatoes
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, Spanish is best
1 cup sherry
1 cup chicken broth or water
2 teaspoons salt
1 pound frozen green chickpeas or 32-oz can chickpeas, drained

• In a medium saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil and add the garlic and onion, cook for 2 minutes. Add the chorizos, fry for 2 minutes, then add the red bell pepper, saute for 2 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients except chickpeas and let simmer for 15 minutes. Add the frozen garbanzos and simmer for 10 minutes, do not let boil rapidly or the chickpeas will break into mush. Drizzle the remaining olive oil before serving.

You have to pre-boil separately tripe or pork hocks if you are using them. Then add with the meat as directed above.

Misua With Patola Soup (Extra Thin Flour Noodles with Green Loofah)

You would think it is strange to eat loofah, that thing you use for exfoliating while in the shower but it's true, patola is loofah in its green form before it's dried to make into loofah and it is edible and yummy. Most Asians I think eat this vegetable. When I was a child in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, I used to see them growing on my neighbor's fence which they gave away to anybody who asked, for free.

Yesterday I went to the grocery for the sole purpose of getting celery root for soup but then I saw this really fresh young patola. I had to see if the grocery has very thin flour noodles we Filipinos call misua (Singaporeans call them meesua) and was so glad they have them. I looked for the recipe in my Filipino cookbooks and I was annoyed that not one among my 6 cookbooks has it. My Singaporean/Malaysian cookbook has almost the same recipe as the Pinoy's, they also use patola which they call ketola. I didn't put seafood and chicken, we had the soup with boiled eggs, just like the way my mother prepared it.

For the soup, saute 2 chopped garlic and 1 sliced onion, add 5 C chicken broth and 1 T patis (fish extract) and bring to a boil, let boil for 2 minutes then add sliced patola, cook for 2 minutes, add 3 bundles noodles, cut in half, and cook for 2 minutes, do not overcook. Adjust seasoning with salt or fish extract. Top with sliced boiled eggs (I like my eggs boiled for only 5 minutes).